The Argosy, Vol. 84 No. 1 — page 45: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THANKS TO THE B. R. T. scowling at the other. “ I’ve strained your sterno-mastoid!”’ “What?” cried somebody’s butler, paling slightly. “The big muscle in the side of your neck, man!” the doctor said with swiftly growing concern. ‘“ Here! Get your coat off!” 7 “For what?” “So that I can massage it into shape again before the real swelling sets in. Hurry up! I can catch it now, but if you’re going to back away like that you’ll not be able to move your head for six weeks or more. Lord! I never meant to do that. That’s it—get off your coat and undo your collar,” Dr. Bowen pursued earnestly. “‘ Sit down here on the edge of the bed, where I can get at you more easily!” ‘ For the time being the good doctor had laid his supply of ethics away in lavender; there was genuine conviction in his tone and manner, however, and the servant, after a long, rather scared stare, slipped out of his coat and undid his collar and, after another hesitating moment, perched on the edge of the bed. ‘Say, sir—” he began. ‘Say nothing!” Dr. Bowen retorted cheerfully, as he pitched headlong on the man and sent him flat on the bed. Irresistibly his big left hand went round the butler’s head, closing firmly over the mouth and holding down the up- per half of him! Two fingers of his right hand slid underneath the collar-band of the shirt and tore it away bodily, leaving much bare skin. And stifled beneath the hand the most astonishing wild yell of pain failed to reach the outer world, because with more energy than care Dr. Bowen’s hypodermic needle had entered the butler’s anatomy and done its work. For some fifteen or twenty seconds it seemed that the butler would succeed in breaking loose, for he squirmed and kicked in a fashion really maniacal. The large body of the doctor was upon him, how- ever; and presently, as he jammed the 35 sober countenance into the covers, Bowen was able to say distinctly: “Lie still! D’ye hear mei Lie still if you want to come out of it alive! I’ve given you a double shot of the stuff we save for tremens cases, and ten minutes from now there won’t be a wiggle in you, my friend! “We try to hold ’em down asa rule, after that dose, until it takes effect, but you’re at perfect liberty to struggle if you like. struggle hard enough, but—that part’s up to you.” And he smiled at the back of the but- ler’s head. It was plain that the fellow had never studied medicine, anyway; he was relaxing in the most obedient fashion. With a jerk Dr. Bowen turned him over. The man was frightened; nay, he was scared through and through and up and down. : ' “Tm going to leave you here,” the man from Hallas said, rising warily. “ If you’re careful of your health you’ll wake up about noon somewhat heavy and stupid, but still likely to die of old age. If you move from that bed before I go, Pll knock you out with this fist—see it? And if you want to kick around and raise Cain when I’ve gone, that’s your lookout. If you have a chance to realize it, you'll be tremendously astonished at the sudden way you stop!” Nor had somebody’s butler moved as yet. Dr. Bowen stooped swiftly and re- covered the key from under the little table. Then he departed with the ab- ruptness of a lightning flash and the key rattled in the door even as it slammed shut. After that, for a minute or more, Dr. Bowen listened. Should the butler elect to go mad with fright and kick about, it would not matter greatly; this room, into which he had no doubt at all that he himself was to have been locked, was pleasantly distant from the rest of the house. But the butler was not kicking about. He was weeping strangely, with the grief CORNNCOOOMKS: Frequently they die when they © (E@)